Grading a Vikings-Falcons trade to reunite Justin Jefferson with Kirk Cousins

During the 2024 NFL draft, a portal opened to a different dimension where the Minnesota Vikings traded superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson to the Los Angeles Chargers for the No. 5 pick per Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. According to that report, the Vikings would use that pick to draft LSU wide receiver Malik Nabers. That ultimately didn’t happen and that specific dimensional portal closed.

The Vikings were ready to jump into a world where they would stick with Sam Darnold as their signal caller and have a rookie as their WR1. If they were okay with trading away their biggest asset in April, what makes you believe they’re still not open to it? 

A Justin Jefferson trade is unlikely, but not out of the question

Minnesota doesn’t really have anything to offer to Jefferson this year. He’s going to be catching passes from either Sam Darnold or a rookie J.J. McCarthy, neither of which inspire a whole lot of confidence for the 2024 season. 

On top of that, there is clearly some friction between Jefferson and the Vikings about when he’s getting paid and how much money will be in his mondo-sized bag. Is Justin waiting for that payday to get bigger? Maybe, but as we’ve seen with the Eagles and A.J. Brown, there are ways to finagle guaranteed money and contracts.

So if we’re talking trades, a clear place to start looking at potential partners is by looking at the Atlanta Falcons. Bleacher Report came up with a potential trade between Minnesota and Atlanta that would put Jefferson back with his old pal Kirk Cousins.

For this trade, the Falcons would receive Justin Jefferson and the Vikings would receive wide receiver Drake London, a 2025 first-round pick, and a 2025 fourth-round pick.

Keep a couple of things in mind while you’re looking at this: There haven’t been a whole lot of big-time wide receiver trades this offseason, and the trades that have been made, albeit for different positions, have resulted in much less of a haul than they should have. Brian Burns, Haason Reddick, and L’Jarius Sneed were all traded for a handful of cigarettes and a half-eaten Snickers bar compared to what was expected.

Based on preseason Super Bowl odds, the Falcons’ first-round pick would be somewhere around the No. 11 to No. 13 pick and the fourth-round pick would be around the No. 107 to No. 110 pick. That’s not a terrible couple of picks to get, given everything we’ve seen this far in the offseason. 

And then there’s the Drake London of it all… on a human level, this trade would be considered a war crime against him. For the first time in his career, he has a quarterback who we know can throw the ball. For him to get an opportunity to play with Kirk, only for it to be ripped away, would be a diabolically evil crime against humanity.

That said, London has the makings of a top-level receiver in the NFL. Even in the catastrophes of an offense that he’s played with for the past two seasons, he’s still averaging 12.6 yards per catch. That’s significantly worse than Jefferson’s 15 YPC, but that’s why two good draft picks are being included in this. 

Imagine what would happen for Drake if he played for a coach like Kevin O’Connell who didn’t actively avoid using the best players on his offense. 

The problem, again, is the trade market this year. Teams that trade players who receive a new deal need to get more in return, but that hasn’t been happening. That’s even more true when we’re talking about a player who is literally the best in the entire world at his job. 

Football-wise, this trade would be an A- for the Falcons and a C- for the Vikings. Content-wise, this trade would be an A+. Justin Jefferson gets Kirk Cousins out of his element, and there’s nothing better than seeing a guy who looks like he dresses up as Mr. Rogers for Halloween get more iced out than a featured rapper in a mid-2000s music video. This trade would undoubtedly give us that.

Falcons Grade: A- | Vikings Grade: C-